Australia has just experienced its warmest 12 months since climate records began.

Data monitoring by the Bureau of Meteorology shows the average temperature throughout Australia in the year to August 31 was 1.11 degrees above the long-term average. (Note from Sou - that's the 1961-1990 average, which is warmer than preceding periods)

The nation's fourth-warmest spring on record morphed into the hottest summer on record. And now the seventh-warmest autumn has been followed by the third-warmest winter Australians have ever experienced.

In Victoria, it was the warmest winter on record, just pipping the winter of 2005.

In New South Wales, it was the second warmest, eclipsed only by the winter of 2009.

And across the nation, winter was 1.29 degrees warmer than the long-term average – defined as the years from 1961 to 1990 (which were themselves warmer than the first half of their century).

And the dreadful thing is that we could be electing a government that is pretty well intent on making the climate worse, with a potential PM who doesn't care about climate change or global warming and has even said it's "crap". What to do? Let's just hope the Senate doesn't cave.

6 comments:

mandas
said...

It gets worse with our opposition / soon to be government. Tony 'arsehole' Abbott has already stated that if there isn't enough money budgetted for his No Action Policy, he will simply throw away the emissions reduction commitment rather than add more money to meet the target.I should have seen this coming, but I have never been so angry in all my life. I am ashamed to admit that I am an Australian, and that there are others in my community who would even contemplate voting for that bastard.

I don't know how many more Australia-wide flood years it will take, or how many more catastrophic bushfires or how many more towns running out of water in the next long hot drought before people will accept we need to shift to clean energy.

My prediction if Tony gets elected:

Tony will get a few volunteers to plant some trees in marginal country. No-one will ever see them and they'll disappear in the next drought or wildfire, but Tony will continue to try to count them towards emissions reduction.

The country will go down the gurgler economically under his leadership therefore he'll argue we can't afford to shift to clean energy.

By the time 2020 comes around, it will be too late to stay under two degrees of warming.

Or - Malcolm Turnbull will seize leadership sometime in the first year and the carbon pricing scheme will remain and strengthen, and over time we will get rid of our dependence on coal.

Well, we cooled down a bit since, with even some below normal winters but otherwise usually above the 20th century average of course. Summer this year fairly hot, September today starting a one in 30 yrs hot event.

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Definition of Denier (Oxford): A person who denies something, especially someone who refuses to admit the truth of a concept or proposition that is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence.
‘a prominent denier of global warming’
‘a climate change denier’

Alternative definition: A former French coin, equal to one twelfth of a Sou, which was withdrawn in the 19th century. Oxford. (The denier has since resurfaced with reduced value.)